It wasn’t just shopper Vladislav Molcan who was left beaming after he bagged himself the first prize of €5,000 and a gold-plated apple in Italian consortium VOG’s recent Golden Apple Tree competition. Run during the summer in order to promote the company’s Marlene brand, the initiative also handed out prizes to the fruit vendors themselves, including Christian Gruber, area manager responsible for the branch of Despar in Tirolo, north-eastern Italy, where Mr Molcan purchased his winning fruit.
The imaginative campaign saw the Marlene brand link up with Mastercard to offer the country’s consumers the opportunity to win one of 76 pre-paid Golden Cards, each worth between €50 and €5,000. In order to cash in, shoppers had to collect stickers from Marlene-branded fruit and attach them to special postcards. Each of the more than 10,000 vendors who took part had their name printed on these cards, ensuring that when the winning entries were drawn, their role in the marketing process would also be recognised.
In second place among the vendors was Paul Moser, a fresh produce salesman from Falzes, near Bolzano, while the third prize went to Pietro De Ghetto, who runs the ‘Frutta e Verdura’ store in Borca di Cadore, in the region of Veneto.
For VOG marketing manager Hannes Waldmüller, the competition was an unqualified success. “We are really happy with the results we obtained and with the way in which the competition was received by consumers and fruit vendors alike,” he commented. “The level of participation was good and, during the course of the three months, even those people who don’t normally buy Marlene apples had the chance to try our fruit and get to know the quality and variety of our range.”
During the course of the promotional period, VOG’s apple sales saw a notable improvement thanks in part to the Golden Apple Tree promotion. During the month of March, when the competition began, one of the consortium’s 11 varieties saw a 19 per cent increase in sales compared with the same period of 2008, according to Mr Waldmüller.
Meanwhile, leading players in the Italian apple industry have officially unveiled From, a major new initiative designed to promote the country’s exports of the fruit outside Europe.
At a special international launch event held during the World Food Moscow trade fair last month, the From logo and concept was presented to traders, importers, suppliers and trade journalists.
The logo is expected to be used by the five companies involved in the project – VOG, VI.P, Melinda, La Trentina and VOG Products – who will initially employ the brand to market apples sold in Russia, with a view to potentially extending this marketing project to other non-European countries in which the exporters are active.
Russia is being seen as the primary target market for the From brand, while Italian apple industry insiders say other emerging markets such as the Middle East, India and North America are likely to feature in its future development.
Trentino-based organisations Melinda and La Trentina recently agreed with South Tyrol-based companies VOG and VI.P Val Venosta to establish a permanent commercial presence in the Russian capital as of the upcoming 2009/10 season.
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